Asking with Intent

On the functions of written parliamentary questions

Solveig Bjørkholt

University of Oslo

Martin Søyland

University of Oslo

2024-06-25

Backdrop

The Drama is in the Ink
Conflict in Written Parliamentary Questions

[O]pposition MPs ask more positive questions than MPs from governing parties. However, when including the topical content of questions, the effect is consistently reduced. We argue these findings point to the existence of a participation threshold for governing parties.

Bjørkholt and Søyland (forthcoming™️, LSQ)




Recurring problem:
Why do MPs ask these questions in the first place?

  • Two questions
    1. Which functions of WPQs are more used?
    2. Do MPs from the opposition use WPQs differently from government party MPs?

WPQs in Stortinget

  • Short questions
    • Optional justification (1 A4)
    • Each MP quota: 2 per week
    • Presidency can dismiss questions
  • Minister should answer within 6 days:
    • An actual answer
    • Justification for not answering
    • Message that the WPQ will not be answered

Theory

Functions of WPQs

  Type Label
Oversight Reactive (Ogul and Rockman 1990) Accountability
Active (Ogul and Rockman 1990) Information gathering

Functions of WPQs

  Type Label
Oversight Reactive (Ogul and Rockman 1990) Accountability
Active (Ogul and Rockman 1990) Information gathering
Issue competition Self-promotion (Rasch 2011) Personal representation
Party-promotion (Green-Pedersen 2010) Partisan campaigning

Functions of WPQs

  Type Label
Oversight Reactive (Ogul and Rockman 1990) Accountability
Active (Ogul and Rockman 1990) Information gathering
Issue competition Self-promotion (Rasch 2011) Personal representation
Party-promotion (Green-Pedersen 2010) Partisan campaigning
Obstructionsim Legislative obstructionism (Wawro and Schickler 2010) Obstruction of time

Methods

Data

id mp_id q_from_party q_to_party text
34933 HAFA FrP A bønder som ønsker å starte produksjon av hamp blant annet til utnyttelse som bioenergi har fått avslag fra statens legemiddelverk
73057 JFI H FrP hvordan jobber regjeringen med å gjøre nordlandsbanen mer effektiv sikker og miljøvennlig og hvilke tiltak funksjonsmål og planer jobber regjeringen
56257 IBTH FrP A hva vil statsråden gjøre etter at lotteri og stiftelsestilsynet har anbefalt kulturdepartementet å godkjenne søknaden om lotterivirksomhet og for at
85275 BJMO R V i hvilke kommuner er det i dag full barnehagedekning og dermed ikke behov for å opprette flere barnehageplasser og basert
19905 HHL SV A for andre gang på kort tid har statens vegvesen i nord trøndelag tapt en sak vedr mangeårig bruk av vikar

Data

  • \(36,532\) WPQs
  • \(6\) Parliamentary periods
  • \(14\) Parties
  • \(6,845,888\) Tokens
  • \(736\) MPs

Manual coding and classification

Bad classification scheme or hard task?

NorBERT 3

  • Samuel et al. (2023)
  • Subset only WPQs coders agree on
  • Fine-tune NORBERT 3 base on our 5 categories
  • Classify remaining WPQs:
    • 5 proportions per question, sums to 1
  • Assumptions
    1. WPQs can serve multiple functions at once (MMM)
    2. … but to different degrees
    3. WPQS do not serve other functions than the 5 categories
    4. The language of WPQs contain this information

Design

  • Dependent variable(s)
    • WPQ class proportion(s)
  • Independent variable
    • MP to minister relation
      1. Opposition
      2. Coalition partner
      3. Same party
  • Fixed effects
    • Parliamentary period (clustered)
    • Party (clustered)
    • MP

Results

What function is used more?

Who uses which functions?

Who uses which functions?

Who uses which functions?

Who uses which functions?

To-do

  1. Consolidate the theoretical framework
  2. Fine-tune the fine-tuned model
  3. Use NorBERT 3 large on cluster
  4. Train 1 model per class (utilize sub-categories)
  5. Include election margin in regression (maybe)

References

Green-Pedersen, Christoffer. 2010. “Bringing Parties Into Parliament: The Development of Parliamentary Activities in Western Europe.” Party Politics 16 (3): 947–369.
Ogul, Morris S., and Bert A. Rockman. 1990. “Overseeing Oversight: New Departures and Old Problems.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 15 (1): 5. https://doi.org/10.2307/439999.
Rasch, Bjørn Erik. 2011. “Behavioural Consequences of Restrictions on Plenary Access: Parliamentary Questions in the Norwegian Storting.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 17 (3): 382–93.
Samuel, David, Andrey Kutuzov, Samia Touileb, Erik Velldal, Lilja Øvrelid, Egil Rønningstad, Elina Sigdel, and Anna Palatkina. 2023. “NorBench – A Benchmark for Norwegian Language Models.” In Proceedings of the 24th Nordic Conference on Computational Linguistics (NoDaLiDa), 618–33. Tórshavn, Faroe Islands: University of Tartu Library. https://aclanthology.org/2023.nodalida-1.61.
Wawro, Gregory J., and Eric Schickler. 2010. “Legislative Obstructionism.” Annual Review of Political Science 13 (1): 297–319. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.040108.105759.